Smoke alarms are heavily relied on to detect smoke, such as caused by a fire, and to alert individuals of the fire, while fire alarms detect a presence of fire and generate an alert. Generally, the alarms are the first indicator of a fire and are instrumental in assisting individuals to timely escape. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that almost two-thirds of home fire deaths resulted from fires in which the home did not have a working smoke alarm. Placement of the smoke alarms and maintenance are extremely important to ensure the alarms are effective in providing a warning. For example, the U.S. Fire Administration recommends installing a smoke alarm on each floor of a property. Further, with regards to residential properties, the U.S. Fire Administration recommends a smoke alarm in every bedroom and in the hallway outside of each bedroom.
Most battery powered alarms function autonomously. Thus, alarms closest to a fire will sound first, while other alarms will not sound until the fire is in a predefined range of those alarms. In one example, a two-story house has an alarm on the first floor and the second floor. A fire starts in the kitchen, which is on the first floor, and the alarm sounds. However, a family asleep on the second floor cannot hear the alarm sounding on the first floor. By the time the alarm on the second floor sounds, the family has lost precious time in escaping the fire and finds themselves in a dangerous and possibly life-threatening situation.
To prevent such situations, wireless interconnectable smoke alarms, such as by Kidde, utilize radio frequency to provide a warning such that when one alarm sounds, the other connected alarms also sound. However, the wireless smoke alarms of Kidde can only communicate with one another via radio frequency and merely provide a warning alarm, rather than instructions for escaping the facility in which a fire is burning. While wireless networks provide the ability to communicate, they are only able to communicate with one another and are unable to communicate with other types of devices, such as those that are commonly found in residential and commercial dwellings. In contrast, sonically connected devices offer the ability to bridge disparate technologies and have the ability to sense environmental sounds against which the devices are trained to lend themselves to triggering capabilities.
Accordingly, there is a need for a diverse communication system that allows different types of devices to communicate with one another to provide alarms at the same time, as well as instructions for escaping a fire. Preferably, the communication system includes sonic communication.